Financial institutions that receive cash payments or deposits from customers using automated systems require effective approaches for receiving and protecting all cash deposited. It can be challenging for financial institutions to verify, account for, and secure cash deposits, as cash transactions do not leave a “footprint” linking them to a particular customer, and are not traceable by procedures typically used to track other types of transactions involving forms of payment such as checks, credit cards, and debit cards. This problem is of particular concern for financial institutions whose customers use automated teller machines (ATMs) to make deposits that include cash.
Traditionally, financial institution customers making out-of-lobby or off-hours deposits would enclose their deposited cash in an envelope or money bag. However, a newer generation of ATMs uses imaging systems to receive deposits. Use of an imaging system means that the deposited cash for a particular transaction is not bound together in any way; rather, it is fed into the ATM so that each bill is imaged separately. Thus, use of an imaging system results in the deposited cash being placed, unbound and free of any enclosure, into the ATM. The cash inside an ATM is accessible to anyone who can open the ATM's service door and access its inner workings, such as ATM service technicians and armored truck carriers.